We bought our tickets about a month ago, and we also paid our deposit on the apartments. The balance is due a month before we leave. Is there a deadline for buying travel insurance? Will our tickets and deposits be covered if we pay for the insurance this weekend?
We have been going back and forth on which company to use and how much to insure our trip for. What has been your experience?
Hi Eli,
I'm not an expert, but from researching, my understanding was that travel insurance will cover expenses previously paid. I believe the only issue related to timing of when you buy the insurance is related to a waiting period for pre-existing health conditions. We made our first purchase relating to our trip last October and bought travel insurance in February for a June trip.
We ended up going with AIG's Travel Guard. I think it was their silver level, also known as Protect Assist. I thought this was the best reasonable combination. The amount we decided on will cover all of our prepaid expenses plus a little bit of expenses we will incur over there. For example, most of our hotels have a policy that you can cancel up a week, 2 days before, or the day of. We didn't include most of these costs as it would have greatly added to the cost of insurance. I tried to find a balance- but go with what makes you comfortable.
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We used insuremytrip.com and found it to be an excellent tool for comparisons. Just make sure to read the details and purchase the insurance that makes the most sense for you and your family. Don't get overwhelmed as there are many choices- just choose what you think is best and move on. This website will ask you how much the cost of your trip will be. Play around with different numbers to see how much difference there is. For example, we found that there is about a 500 dollar window that costs the same price. It make sense to get the maximum amount for the same cost.
Eli: Rick's answer to your question: "It's smart to buy your insurance policy within a week of the date you make the first payment on your trip. Policies purchased later than a designated cutoff date — generally 7–21 days, as determined by the insurance company — are less likely to cover tour company or air carrier bankruptcies, pre-existing medical conditions (yours or those of family members at home), or terrorist incidents."His full discussion is here: Rick on Travel Insurance
The only other thing to add is that you generally can only purchase "cancel for any reason" insurance within a certain number of days as well (I think it was 15 days for mine).
Although it may have been best to purchase insurance right away (which I didn't realize at the time), I still felt it was beneficial to buy the insurance. Some policies may or may not cover certain things anyway.
